ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Toronto Sun, 9 March 2008
(This is part of an article giving notice of a concert in April. )
The instrument was built in 1922 in the Wurlitzer factory in North Tonawanda, N.Y., for the owners of
the mammoth 3,000-seat Shea's Hippodrome that had opened seven years earlier on the west side of
Terauley (now Bay) St., just north of the Queen St. corner and opposite the Toronto City Hall of the day.
It wasn't long before people began visiting the Hippodrome not just for the myriad of vaudeville acts
and early motion pictures, but to hear Edward Benedict (described as America's foremost organist) give
recitals on the theatre's new Wurlitzer organ.
Over the years, the names of those who performed at the Wurlitzer keyboard -- people like Ernest Hunt,
Horace Lapp, Ernest Dainty, Harry O'Grady and Roland Todd -- became as familiar to Torontonians as
many of the names high up on the theatre's marquee.
No doubt some readers will recall with great fondness the names Kathleen Stokes, Colin Corbett, Quentin Maclean
and Al Bollington, all of whom performed at the Hippodrome in the years prior the theatre's closure in 1956.
Demolition followed and soon the site was being cleared to permit construction of a new underground parking garage.
The surface of the garage would eventually be covered by a public square that would be named in honour of
Nathan Phillips, the long-time Toronto politician who served as the city's mayor from 1955-1962.
One day, as the demolition of the Hippodrome was proceeding, the wrecking company received a letter from
Conn Smythe, owner of the Maple Leafs hockey team and Maple Leaf Gardens. In it he offered $2,000 for the
old Wurlitzer theatre organ, which, if accepted, would ensure the instrument would have a new home in the Gardens.
The wrecking company took the money, then gave Smythe one month to get the massive console, the
numerous pipes and tons of ancillary equipment off the site.
Under the guidance of Gardens' staff members Bob Wood and Doug Morris, the old Shea's Wurlitzer underwent
a major rebuild to the tune of $100,000. When finished a year later, the instrument had a place of
prominence at the south end of the arena, under a huge new painting of the Queen.
It was played for the first time in its new home on Dec. 20, 1958, during that evening's Leafs-Boston hockey game.
The organist was Don Gordon, who thrilled the capacity crowd with Christmas favorites.
Five years later the future of the Wurlitzer was again under threat when the Gardens, new boss, Harold Ballard,
decided to install 1,800 additional seats. To make room, he gave the organ the heave-ho.
Members of the newly formed Toronto Theatre Organ Society (theatreorgans.com/toronto) mounted a
rescue mission, but finding a new home wasn't going to be as easy as last time.
After languishing in storage backstage at the Imperial Theatre (now the Canon Theatre) on Yonge St.
for seven years, an offer of a new home came from the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto.
The offer was eagerly accepted and in June 1970 "several thousand" pieces of Wurlitzer organ were on the move again.
However, because the parts had been in storage for so long, the work necessary to get the organ back
into playable condition would be even more extensive than that required for the first restoration
more than a decade earlier.
But the society was up to the challenge. After thousands of hours of work by dozens of
volunteers on Feb. 12, 1974, the historic Shea's/Maple Leaf Gardens Wurlitzer roared back to life in its
new home in Casa Loma's Great Hall.